OPPOSITION leader Matthew Wale questions the Prime Minister on his pre-departure statement that Solomon Islands will realign its national strategy in line with China’s development assistance.
“Such statements are worrying as it can mean, subjecting matters of strategic importance to our country to China,” Wale said.
“Our national strategy means policies and plans that we have put in place to achieve objectives that serve the interest of our country and people,” he added.
“These are very important matters as they affect the lives of our people and so, under no circumstance should we allow donors to dictate the way we want these driven.
“The manner in which the switch to China was handled by the Prime Minister already bears all the hallmarks of a process cooked up and dictated from Beijing.
“This came out clear when the Prime Minister had to do whatever is necessary to get the decision to switch made before the 1st of October.
“By then, we had no negotiated agreement in place to guide our future engagements with China therefore, any leverage we thought we had, was removed leaving us at the mercy of China.”
Wale further stated the prime minister’s statement is also worrying as it can also mean, China is being treated differently from other donors.
“Why should this be the case, or are there things going on that we do not know?
“Therefore the Prime Minister must explain his statement to the people of this country.
“He is in charge of our national strategy.
“Our country is already heavily donor-dependent and so the last thing we want is for the situation to be further degraded by allowing Beijing to dictate the way we do things in our own country.”
